REPORT OX SHAD-HATCHING OPERATIONS. 417 



4. — ON SHAD-HATCHING OPERATIONS BY THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE 



STATE OP MAINE. 



Bangor, Me., Aiigust 6, 1873. 



Dear Sir : You ask me for data, particulars, «S:iC., of our shad- 

 hatching experience this year. The awakened interest in fish-culture in 

 our State has made such calls upon our time, has kept us so continually 

 occupied, that we were able to make but little anticipatory preparation 

 before we were called to the field of operation. Our experiments were 

 not rich in results of great numbers of fish, but in valuable experience 

 for our future guidance not contained in any of onr books on piscicul- 

 ture. We were governed in onr time of commencing by the 0])erations 

 of the Massachusetts commissioners at Andover, as from them we were 

 to learn the mode of procedure. This necessarily delayed our opera- 

 tions at Bowdoinham until the 15th June. Further delays in obtaining 

 the requisite material for boxes, the changes required by practical use 

 making all those constructed useless in waters where there was no cur 

 rent, consumed so much time that when all was ready the season was 

 passed, and none but spawned shad could be obtained. The opinion 

 was arrived at that all the shad required as spawners could be obtained 

 at Bowdoinham between the 10th and last of June. The great obstacle 

 presented in the path of progress to every attempt to bring about rap- 

 idly the restoration of fish to our waters, is the system of patenting every 

 result of simple experience in practical work, and thus establishing a 

 toll on every road to success. Conclusions as obvious and unavoidable 

 as that "twice 2 is 4" have been the subject of claims for letters-patent 

 until one can scarce use a bit of charcoal as a disinfectant lest he be in 

 extricably involved in a lawsuit, upon the claim that the wood was only 

 charred and not carbonized. 



If this was exhibited only in placing a moderate royalty on every 

 mode, or article, or implement, so patented, the tax would be readily paid ; 

 but, as in our case, the demand is now so exorbitant as to amount to 

 prohibition. The sum demanded of us for one of these patents w-is 

 two-thirds of the entire appropriation of the State of Maine for our whole 

 department. We succeeded, most fortunately, in constructing a hatch- 

 ing-box that, wliile it infringed upon no patent, gave all the requisite 

 motion of the eggs in the box, so necessary to the successful hatching of 

 shad-spawn in a current. At Bowdoinham there was no current to move 

 the eggs in the boxes f the short, choi)ping wave at the ebb and flow of 

 the tide gave simply an up-and-down motion, while the wind with its 

 added force projected the waves into our boxes and washed out the 

 eggs. A new form of box was adopted, a simple parallelogram, with a 

 bottom of wire netting. The boxes were floated within a plank frame 

 as a sort of breakwater; this was a success, so far as hatching was con 

 cerned, but the mesh of the wire netting was too large, and our 

 fish escaped as fast as hatched. This brought us to the end of the sea- 

 son, as no more shad that had not spawned were to.be had. The num- 

 S. Mis. 74 27 



